To Make Fine Cracknels | a Recipe from 1587

This recipe is from Thomas Dawson's 1587 book called The Good Huswife's Jewell, which can be found online here.

Original recipe:

To make fine cracknels.

Take fine flower and a good quantitie of egges as many as wil supply the flowre, then take as much suger as will swéeten the past, and if you will not be at the cost to rayse it with egges, then put thereto swéet water Synamome and a good quantitie of nutmegges and mace, according to your bread, take a good quantitie of Annis séede, and let all this be blended with your flower, and the putting in of your egges or other moysture, then set on your water and let it be at séething, before you put your Crackenelles in it they will goe to the bottome and at their rising take them out and drie them with a cloth then bake them.

My interpretation of the recipe:

Ingredients:
2 cups flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp mace
1/4 tsp anise seed
1/2 cup water

Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Mix the ingredients together, saving the flour for last. Roll out balls and boil them for 1-2 minutes in water. Then, place the balls on a towel to dry for 5 minutes. Place balls on a cookie sheet (with butter or non-stick spray already applied to the cookie sheet). Bake for 30 minutes. Flip the cracknels, if possible, at least once or twice while baking. Otherwise, one side will brown much more than the other side when they're done baking.
Yield is approximately 24 cracknels.


For verbal instructions and to watch cracknels be made, please follow along with this video here.